Happy July 4th!
As noted at ArtDaily.org:
Fair copy of the Declaration of Independence in Thomas Jefferson's hand, 1776 (New York Public Library)
One of The New York Public Library’s greatest treasures, a full-text version of the Declaration of Independence handwritten by Thomas Jefferson will be on view through July 31 at The New York Public Library’s Stephen A. Schwarzman Building in the Sue and Edgar Wachenheim III Gallery. The display will be open for a special viewing over the Independence Day weekend, Sunday, July 4 through Monday, July 5. The exhibition also includes early printings of the Declaration as well as a letter from Benjamin Franklin to George Washington mentioning that the Declaration was being drafted. . . .
In the days immediately following ratification on July 4, 1776, Jefferson made several copies of the text that had been submitted to the Continental Congress, underlining the passages to which changes had been made. Jefferson was distressed by the alterations made, most notably the removal of his lengthy condemnation of slavery. The Library’s copy is one of two known to survive intact. It is shown together with the first Philadelphia printing and the first New York printing of the final version issued by Congress. These versions are complemented by the earliest newspaper printings; the second
official version ordered by Congress, published by a woman printer in Baltimore.
Regular exhibition hours are Monday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Tuesday and Wednesday from 11 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. There will be a special viewing of The Declaration of Independence exhibition only from Sunday through Monday, July 4 through July 5, from 1 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. (all other Library exhibitions, collections, and services will be unavailable).
◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊
There’s also an informative online component of the exhibition, available here»
More on Meissen — Chance to Win at Apollo Magazine
Apollo Magazine’s weekly competition:
We are pleased to announce that our new competition prize is The Arnhold Collection of Meissen Porcelain 1710–50 by Cassidy-Geiger, Sebastian Kuhn and Heike Biedermann (The Frick Collection, $275), to coincide with our just published July/August issue, which celebrates the 300th anniversary of the Meissen manufactury’s foundation. The Arnhold porcelain collection is one of the most important great prewar Meissen collections to have survived intact. Uniquely, most of the pieces date from the first decades of the royal factory, established by August II, Elector of Saxony and King of Poland, in 1710. The collection features a broad range of early work – much of it experimental, including table and chocolate services; figures; European porcelains and Asian ceramics.
For your chance to win, simply answer the following question:
In what year did Johann Joachim Kändler become Modellmeister at the Meissen factory?
Email your answers to offers@apollomag.com using ‘Meissen’ as the subject of your email. Only answers received before midday on 7th July will be entered into the competition draw.
Good luck!
Selections from the Prado Library
From the Prado:
Bibliotheca Artis: Treasures from the Museo del Prado Library, 1500-1750
Prado, Madrid, 5 July — 17 October 2010
Curated by Javier Docampo, Head of Library, Archive and Documentation at the Museo Nacional del Prado
Giuseppe Galli Bibiena, (1696-1756), "Architetture e prospettive... ," 1740 (Cerv/708)
The Museo del Prado Library, presently installed in the Casón del Buen Retiro, houses an important Old Books Holdings, notably increased the past years thanks to the acquisition of the José María Cervelló library and the Daza-Madrazo family library. The exhibition will show forty books and manuscripts dated between 1500 and 1750, as well as a group of eight paintings from the museum’s collection (Titian, El Greco, Velázquez, etc) which will reveal different connections between the bibliographical fund and the paintings collection.
The exhibition is made up of three sections. The first one, Bibliotheca artis, shows the basic landmarks of the European artistic bibliography from the most important renaissance treaties (Alberti, Leonardo, Dürer) up to the fundamental works form the Spanish Golden Age (Pachecho, Carducho, García Hidalgo, Palomino). The second one, Bibliotheca architecturae is devoted to architectural treaties conceived as a defined typology among art books and it comprises early editions of the Vitruvio up to great Italian and European renaissance treaties (Palladio, Serlio, Vignola, Delorme, Dieteterlin). Some books from public festivities will be included (royal admissions, canonizations…) conceived as an irreplaceable testimony of the disappeared ephemeral architectures. And finally, the section Bibliotheca imaginis which focuses on the role that books play as a work tool and as a source of inspiration for artists. From the artists’ portrait repertoire to the drawing drafts, baroque emblem books or the albums with reproductions of works of art, the whole will show the importance of illustrations in books in the building of the visual European imaginary of the Modern Age.
Enfilade 
leave a comment